February 17, 2025

128 thoughts on “Yankees.com: Sabathia cements legacy as first-ballot Hall of Famer

  1. I think some voters are persuadable, or change their own minds. I don’t care about Wagner one way or the other, but also maybe some folks who were wavering realized they had one last chance to do this.

  2. Codify Baseball
    ‪@codifybaseball.bsky.social‬
    LOWEST CAREER MLB ERA
    (last 100 years, 500+ innings):

    Mariano Rivera, 2.21
    Billy Wagner, 2.31 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
    Jonathan Papelbon, 2.44
    Clayton Kershaw, 2.50
    Jacob deGrom, 2.52
    Hoyt Wilhelm, 2.52

    1. i prefer a 1000 innings of work:

      1. **Mariano Rivera** – **ERA+ 205** (1,283.2 innings)
      2. **Pedro Martínez** – **ERA+ 154** (2,827 innings)
      3. **Clayton Kershaw** – **ERA+ 155** (As of 2023, over 2,600 innings)
      4. **Greg Maddux** – **ERA+ 132** (5,008 innings)
      5. **Roy Halladay** – **ERA+ 131** (2,749 innings)
      6. **Randy Johnson** – **ERA+ 135** (4,135 innings)
      7. **Juan Marichal** – **ERA+ 122** (3,507 innings)
      8. **Sandy Koufax** – **ERA+ 131** (2,324 innings)
      9. **Mike Mussina** – **ERA+ 123** (3,562 innings)
      10. **Steve Carlton** – **ERA+ 115** (5,224 innings)

      *chatgpt may have forgotten some people

  3. It’s dumb, but it does keep the unanimous selection somehow magical. As soon as it starts being given out more regularly, it won’t mean much of anything.

    (Which is pretty much what’s being argued – it shouldn’t mean much of anything if you follow the “if you’re a HOFer, you’re a HOFer” line of reasoning.)

  4. The HOF is more like the Hall Of Very Good and very capricious
    CC 251-161 3577ip 116 era+ Elected first ballot
    Tim Hudson 222-133 3126ip 120 era+ failed to get 5% in his second year of eligibility.

    Was CC that much more deserving?

    1. Thing is, it’s either intuition or numbers. If numbers are the determining factor, what would be the point of voters? If voters make their decisions, they’re bound to feel they’re called upon to exercise some sense they have that goes beyond the numbers.
      On a point of agreement, though – I don’t see why they couldn’t have a hall within the hall, recognizing both the “small hall” and “large hall” ideas? Beyond the value of that, it would give them more to do.

  5. From Fangraphs:

    The Yankees would be a very good fit for Kim. Right now, our Depth Charts show them with 3.4 projected wins from the second base position, but that’s because we have Jazz Chisholm Jr. slotted in there, with DJ LeMahieu and Oswaldo Cabrera handling third. The two of them are projected to combine for just 1.5 WAR at the position, which simply isn’t good enough for a team that just won the pennant and is looking to do so again this year. Adding Kim would allow Chisholm return to third base, which he played quite well last season despite having zero previous experience at the position, with LeMahieu and Cabrera holding down the fort there until Kim is healthy. The Yankees are also currently about $19 million under their 2024 payroll, so they have enough space to sign Kim without exceeding last year’s spending.

    1. I think Bregman is still the best option. He has a decent OBP, he’s not THAT old, and he is the only guy left to have 4 WAR last season. Also, while Chisholm can obviously play third base, he’s so much more valuable at second. Kim would be fine if they just REFUSE to spend the extra money, but dang, dudes, why refuse the spend the extra money?

      Heck, at this point, Bregman might be willing to sign a pillow contract! Or an opt-out-laden deal where he could try again at free agency next season.

    2. Love Kim, want the Yankees to sign him, but he’s not a difference maker – he’s coming off of shoulder surgery and might be limited to 2B going forward if his arm does not come back.

    1. It’d be by the same people that started the mess, though. The Top 50 would be KILLED by recency bias. It’d be, like, Big Papi and Derek Jeter in the top ten.

    1. Yes, yes we are. DJLM is heading toward a DFA in a rational world and they would sign a current MLB caliber player, but the Steinbrenners need another renovation on their third yacht, so they will do that instead.

  6. In 1995, Cleveland lost to the Braves with this lineup:

    Kenny Lofton CF
    Omar Vizquel SS
    Carlos Baerga 2B
    Albert Belle LF
    Eddie Murray DH
    Jim Thome 3B
    Manny Ramirez RF
    Paul Sorrento 1B
    Sandy Alomar C

    Hilarious.

    It’s also pretty funny that Manny and Thome, two of the best hitters of the 30 years, were batting in the back half of the lineup!

    1. As the cliché goes, good pitching beats good hitting.
      Maybe a bit more so when HOF-caliber hitting is buried at 6-7 while the guy with a sub-100 OPS+ bats second.
      But really the difference is a rotation with 3 HOF starters who each had at least one good outing in the series – and a #4 starter (Avery) whose stuff was comparable before injuries limited him.

      Even so, there were a lot of super close games in that series. Was very exciting.

    1. Can you even IMAGINE how shitty his market was for him to take that fucking deal?!

      It really makes me sort of wish the Yankees had just signed him, as the deal is cheap enough that they could probably have traded him.

  7. The fucking Cubs are bailing out the Astros and trading for fucking washed up Ryan Pressley. Annoying.

    So the Astros will probably bizarrely bring Bregman back, and now probably look like a better team than the Yankees.

    Well, THAT sucks.

  8. I may head to Cooperstown for this class. I say that, but usually don’t go. But its only a 2 hour drive for me.

    This will apparently be a “see who sticks” infield this year.

    1. I live far away but Mariano would have been my biggest draw, Sabathia’s an excellent choice though. One feels he’ll give a great speech.

  9. This is weird. “The NFL told the New England Patriots to shut down the team’s Bluesky account. Patriots VP of content Fred Kirsch said the team was told that Bluesky is “not an approved social media platform for the NFL yet.”

  10. While I obviously want Cashman to make a big move, I’ll concede that I’m totally down with the idea of picking up random dudes with live arms to see what Blake can do with them. It’s really such an obvious move, right? See what Blake can do with them, then cut them loose if he can’t unlock anything.

    1. That’s ok but he needs a couple of bats. Third base is obvious but a RH hitting outfielder would be useful also.

  11. Yankees with one prospect in MLB top 100, Martian at 21. townies two in the top 10 and 3 in the top 12. including the #2.

    Volpe needs to make the next step and Wells needs to hit like he did over the summer.

  12. slangsonsports.bsky.social
    ‪@slangsonsports.bsky.social‬
    With Sasaki, Snell and Glasnow, the Dodgers have 3 pitchers projected for a 30% strikeout rate or higher, per FG Depth Charts

    No team in MLB history has had 3 pitchers with at least a 30% K% and 75 IP each in a season

    1. I definitely think Sasaki is going to be very good, but projecting a 30% K rate is something.

    2. Sarah Langs is the best, but this stat seems a bit arbitrary. Nolan Ryan at age 42 threw 239.1 innings with a 30.5% K rate. So the 1989 Rangers could have split him into 3 guys and it would have met those criteria.

      Likewise, the 1965 Dodgers had Sandy Koufax, who singlehandedly threw 335.2 IP with a 29.5% K rate. So you could have split him into 4 guys with 83 IP each, three of them with a 31% K rate and one with a mere 29% K rate.

    3. Sorry, I did the math wrong on Koufax. Splitting his 1965 season (335.2IP, 29.5% K rate) into four guys with 83IP each, three could have a 30% K rate and the fourth would have a mere 28%.

      Of course Koufax did it off a higher mound.
      How the heck did Ryan do it at his age?

    1. It makes sense if you are a billionaire, but a relatively poor, single-digit billionaire and want to ascend to the next level of billionairedom.

    1. I think it’s less a salary dump and more trying to fill multiple holes with a single guy, like how Soto filled two rotation spots, catcher, and was a big piece of filling a third rotation spot.

      So if they can get a left fielder and a second baseman for King, it makes some sense.

  13. Now I feel much more upbeat about the Yankees future. MLBTR “Owner Hal Steinbrenner tells Meredith Marakovitz of the YES Network that they plan to open extension talks with their manager in the near future. “We will be talking with him in the days and weeks to come. … There’ll be conversations had with him about potentially staying longer,” Steinbrenner told Marakovitz.”

  14. Poor wittle Hal

    Kirschner: “It’s difficult for most of us owners to be able to do the kinds of things they’re doing. We’ll see if it pays off. They still have to have a season relatively injury free for it to work out for them.”

    1. I mean, whatever, I don’t know what else he’s expected to say. He’s never going to tell the truth. “I don’t want to spend enough to make us a really good team.” So it’s always going to just be some nonsense out of his mouth.

  15. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/01/yankees-planning-to-play-jasson-dominguez-in-left-field.html

    Boone indicated that his starting outfield was likely to comprise Jasson Domínguez in left field, Cody Bellinger in center, and Aaron Judge in right. Trent Grisham is ticketed for a fourth outfield role. The eighth-year skipper suggested he hoped to keep Domínguez mostly in left field while using Bellinger a bit more flexibly. He noted that there’ll be days when Judge serves as a designated hitter while Giancarlo Stanton gets a day off. In those instances, Grisham would likely draw into center field with Bellinger kicking over to right.

    Boone added that with the current roster makeup, he views Jazz Chisholm Jr. as the starter at second base. He named DJ LeMahieu, Oswaldo Cabrera and Oswald Peraza as players who could battle for playing time at third base. New York has been linked to free agents Jorge Polanco and Brendan Rodgers, so there’s still a chance for an acquisition to push Chisholm back to the hot corner.

    I hope this is a negotiating tactic to get a real 2b/3b.

    1. They don’t want him sitting next to a Zimmer. Every decision needs to be made based on input from the crack analytics team. Just look at the numbers for Shohei against Nestor. That’s a move you can make without thinking. They don’t want some old-school baseball guy talking about a recent arm injury, being rusty, or some other nebulous ideas that aren’t backed up by statistically significant data.

    1. “Phony numbers, LA makes more money.“

      What do you base this on? Why would you think that one of the most popular brands in all of sports would not have the most revenue? I have no idea, but these numbers look reasonable to me.

    2. Looking more closely at this chart, I am surprised to see the Padres generating as much revenue as they are. Being geographically stuck between LA, Phoenix, Mexico and an Ocean it would seem their revenue base would be smaller.

    3. SD is a huge baseball town now that they have no other major professional sports teams

  16. Scherzer to the Jays for one year/$15.5 million.

    I don’t mind that. I find it hard to believe he’ll be any more effective than Rodriguez, who was currently their #5 starter.

    In other news, the Yankees apparently tried to acquire Josh Naylor before signing Goldschmidt. I’m glad that that did not work out. Not a fan of Naylor.

  17. If there are no more moves to be made, there are a whole bunch of question marks that might blow up the season.
    Goldy at 1b getting older
    Wells – which one are we getting? Hopefully not the September October version.
    Jasson the Rookie
    Volpe who needs to learn how to hit
    Closer who pitched 22 games last year due to injury
    A DH who quite frankly isn’t very good and getting older every day
    Whos on 3b?
    A manager who will cost them a few wins.

    The starting pitching is pretty darn good though. So once again, 90+ wins but no WS victory. I guess that’s still better than being a Pirates fan.

    1. Williams’ injury last year was a fluky one, though, so I’m not concerned about that all, and I imagine neither are the Yankees.

      But yes, they obviously need another move, and I think they definitely WILL make one more move (probably two, with the addition of a lefty reliever), but the issue is that I doubt we’ll be too impressed by the third baseman or second baseman they bring in. There just aren’t a lot of good trade options out there, and there are almost no good free agent options (outside of Bregman, who they don’t want for some reason).

      If the Blue Jays sign Bregman, then I’ll be actually concerned with Toronto.

    1. I think we’ll find out if that’s true based on how they handle him this Spring Training.

      If it IS true, then he’ll be cut this season. If it isn’t, then he won’t.

      The logic of NOT cutting him last season (if they ever seriously did consider it) is that, since he was going on the IL anyways, it really wouldn’t help the team to cut him, and obviously would be an insult to him (and apparently Judge didn’t want him to feel insulted). But if they were actually considering it, then they’d almost certainly cut him before THIS season.

  18. Fangraphs has two Yankees listed in the top 100, The Martian and Will Warren. I’m not sure how their listing work. For instance they have Caleb Durbin #10 with a FV of 40, the Martian is in the 30s with a FV of 55.

    1. I don’t think the Dodgers actually ever get rid of players, they just keep accumulating them. But not to worry, at some point their franchise will collapse into a singularity under the weight of all their contracts and THEN it’ll be the Yankees time to shine!

  19. Nah gonna happen:

    Dodgers GM: “Door Remains Open” For Reunion With Enrique Hernandez

    Gomes’s comments come shortly after reports surfaced of interest in Hernandez on the part of the Yankees.

  20. The Dodgers win the series and they don’t stop trying to improve. Greg Joyce:Part of the reason the Yankees are shopping in the discount bin to fill their infield vacancy is Hal Steinbrenner’s desire to dip below the $301 million luxury tax threshold. However, the team maintains that they are unable to sign a player even of Hernández’s or Moncada’s ilk until they find a trade partner for Marcus Stroman and his $18 million salary for 2025.
    The richest team in baseball.

  21. Keith Law released his top-20 Yankees prospects … underwhelming. Dominguez, Lombard, and Hess are the top-3. A lot of 23-26 year olds on there – which to me implies low-ceiling guys.

    12 of the top-20 are RHP. Lombard will probably end up at 3B. Spencer Jones needs to have a big year to stay where he is in terms of prospect shine.

    1. When a guy who’s never pitched in the minors and was some number Vandy pitcher you’re in trouble.FG had Warren in the top 100. I wonder what the evaluators think of Volpe and Wells because in essence they’re both prospects.

  22. Razzball 2025 preseason projections for Anthony Volpe of the New York Yankees have him as the #133 ranked player and #15 shortstop (SS) worth $11.0 in standard 12 team 5×5 mixed leagues for fantasy baseball.
    FG has him at wRC+ 101, 3.7 WAR, 10th ranked SS

  23. Razzball 2025 preseason projections for Austin Wells of the New York Yankees have him as the #232 ranked player and #14 catcher (C) worth $3.4 in standard 12 team 5×5 mixed leagues for fantasy baseball.

    FG has him wRC+107, WAR 3.5, 8th ranked C

    1. And Luca is probably a better 3b at this point,
      Maybe Arod can come back? He’s probably better than DJLM too.

    1. Are the yanks #1 in the AL? If so, is that 15 win difference the biggest spread ever between the top team in each league?

      Personally, I’d bet the over on both.

    2. I know you’re at least partially kidding but, the over on the Yanks isn’t crazy, but 104+ on the Dodgers? It’s possible but…

  24. Cash gets his man-Carlos Carrasco. If Carrasco makes the Yankees, the contract will pay him $1.5 million in base salary, with an extra $2.5M included in performance incentives.

    1. This seems like a decent pickup–if Blake can fix him the upside is huge, if not, who cares

  25. I thought they’d already had Carrasco once then I remembered it was Kluber. They already did Bartolo and CC. Let’s just get all the old Cleveland pitchers. Make a call on Cliff Lee. Get Charles Nagy and Dave Burba in here. Put a plaque up for Bob Feller while we’re at it.

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